When lightning struck The Cobra

The Cobra, a millions-year-old, iconic rock formation popular with rock climbers, met an unfortunate demise recently  during a period of severe weather.The top-heavy head of the 50-foot rock tower near Moab, Utah, became detached and crumbled to the ground between Tuesday and Friday early August.Officials were not  exactly sure what caused the decapitation, but it […]

The Cobra, a millions-year-old, iconic rock formation popular with rock climbers, met an unfortunate demise recently  during a period of severe weather.
The top-heavy head of the 50-foot rock tower near Moab, Utah, became detached and crumbled to the ground between Tuesday and Friday early August.Officials were not  exactly sure what caused the decapitation, but it is believed lightning, high winds, and rain are contributing factors.
“We haven’t been out there to investigate, but from our perspective, it’s an act of nature,” Lisa Bryant, a public information officer for the Bureau of Land Management in Moab,said  “Erosion happens. It’s sad when something like this happens, but we’re very grateful that no one was hurt.”
The overriding theory by climbers is that the structure was struck by lightning.
“It would be a surprise to exactly no one who has stood atop that sketchy block that it slid off, but The Cobra actually lost its head from below the ‘wattle’ of the neck, on up,” climbing enthusiast Lisa Hathaway of Moab said  “This makes me think the beheading was a result of a lightning strike, either direct or collateral damage.
“It had a very loose cap,” Hathaway mentioned. “It was almost more miraculous that it lasted as long as it did.”
On the climbing website Mountain Project, George Bell made the first comment about The Cobra on February 20, 2002, saying, “This sick tower gets my vote as ‘most likely to fall down in the next 10 years.’ What is holding it up?”
Bell missed it by two years.
Hathaway told the Salt Lake Tribune that it was an April Fools’ Day tradition in Moab to say the tenuous formation had collapsed.
“Alas, it was no prank [this time],” she told Desert News. “The Cobra was beheaded.
“It will definitely be sorely missed. The Cobra was definitely an iconic little summit for people to climb.”
The Cobra is part of the Fisher Towers formation located 20 miles northeast of Moab. The Utah Geological Survey reported that the Fisher Towers is approximately 245 million years old, making The Cobra one ancient rock formation.
Or one former ancient rock formation, as it were.

Culled from grindtv.com